Networking in Windoze 7

[rohan]

Under WinXP it was so easy - in my connections folder, I had a wired connection and a wireless connection. The wireless went to my ISP's router and hence the Internet and nothing else. The wired used a cable directly to my NAS with a static IP address at both ends. Everything worked AOK by enabling the appropriate connection (and disabling it after use) and I was a happy bunny.

Since I've been forced to move to OSX and Win7Pro for my browsing and downloading, I've discovered how much better and easier it is using Win7 networking - NOT.

Yes, it was easy to set up the Wifi connection for my router so I can still browse and download. However, when I try to set up a "new" connection whether wired directly to my NAS or via the same router with the NAS on a cable at the either end (and no cable to the phone socket), all it does is mangle my existing Internet connection. Despite the m$ terminology, it seems impossible to add a NEW connection.

My current practice when I want to access the net is to go to Control Panel and the network and sharing entry, then select the change adaptor settings link. This shows two connections / adaptors - Bluetooth and wireless. I enable the latter and bingo - I'm online. When I've finished, I disable that connection. Ideally, I'd like to have a third connection / adaptor on this settings page which would allow me to connect to my NAS (either wired or wireless, and using my own router if I can't just connect a network cable between the two devices).

Could some kind soul please explain to me in reasonably detailed steps how I go about setting this up in Win7ProSP1 ?

Thanks in advance for any help,
Ro

[TSR2]

Hi Ro,

Assuming you have the driver installed for the ethernet adapter and your using DHCP, you just plug the cable in, its that easy. Are you trying to manually configure the IP address etc?

[TSR2]

Hi Ro,

Re reading your post again, is below an accurate summary?

A PC with a static LAN IP address
A NAS with a static IP address
A router with a Static IP address (LAN side)

You want to keep the nas and the PC disconnected from the internet most of the time, and only connect the PC to the router when you want the PC to be online?

[rohan]

Ben,
Hopefully this clarifies the situation for you.

I can set up each of my PCs with either DHCP or a static IP address. I was using static addresses with XP since I discovered that I could connect my NAS to a PC directly with a cat 6 cable and no intervening device. Doing the same with Win7 doesn't work - ping connects fine but my net use commands fail to set up a mapped drive to any shares on the NAS. The NAS is currently set up with a static address.

My MO for using any network facility is to enable only that connection for as long as I want to access that network, and to disable it when I've finished. I have two routers - one from my ISP with which I use WiFi for Internet access, and a far more capable and sophisticated one which I bought for use with my NAS when I discovered that I couldn't get the NAS to work with just a network cable using Win7. Also the NAS has not and never will be connected to the Internet, just as none of the PCs will connect to the net and the NAS at the same time.

As I said, I have a connection / adaptor set up for WiFi net access under Win7 now which relies on DHCP and a router. The main reason I keep saying that I want another connection is that the existing one is defined as a public network with appropriate security. The new one should be defined as a home network so that it can also have appropriate security settings.

Am I right in thinking that I cannot just plug a network cable into a Win7 PC and a NAS and have it work as it used to under WinXP without a router, or is it that I needed to change some setting to do that ?

Other than that need for an extra connection, I'm open to using either DHCP or static addresses on either or both ends of the connection. And although I've currently disabled WiFi on my second router, I could re-enable it if it would mean that it would generate that new connection / adaptor.

Thanks for your input so far,
Ro

[TSR2]

Hi Ro,

That makes sense. Firstly there's no need for two routers. I'll use the example IP addressing below, but obviously, you'll need to substitute your own IP addressing schema.

Firstly lets define the IP addressing for the no internet attached stuff. This will be the NAS and the Ethernet cable on the PC.

NAS
IP Address: 10.255.255.1
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway 10.255.255.1 (but not needed as you will not be connecting out from this network. I've pointed it at the NAS's own interface, but you could just as easily leave this as 0.0.0.0 if the NAS will permit it) - Out of curiosity, what make / model / Firmware revision is the NAS? Many have inbuilt DHCP.

PC Ethernet Adapter
IP Address: 10.255.255.2
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway 10.255.255.1 (but not needed as you will not be connecting out from this network. I've pointed it at the NAS's own interface, but you could just as easily leave this as 0.0.0.0 if the NAS will permit it)

With this configuration the NAS and PC should be able to talk quite happily to one another. Note at this stage, there is no wireless set up and nothing is connected to your ISP router.

Can you try this and see if you can get this bit to work?

Here is a link to where to change the IP settings in Windows 7. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... =windows-7

[rohan]

OK, I'll try that tomorrow.

NAS - network cable - PC with no changes to the IP properties (that is, expecting to have DHCP available from the NAS).

If that doesn't work, I'll change the PC to a static address on my subnet and retry. Making changes like this is easy enough to do or undo, at least when you're testing something. Can you tell me if there's a way to tell whether I'm using IPv4 or IPv6, or should I change the properties on both ?

And my NAS is a Synology DS213+ - firmware / DSM version number to follow tomorrow, though it should be up to date.

Thanks again,
Ro

[TSR2]

Hi Ro,

The Synology should be able to run DHCP, I've installed a few of them for folk, and they are a decent little box, but if you haven't set DHCP up on it, you'll need a static on the Win 7 machine. For the time being ignore IPv6, but leave it there (i.e. don't try and remove it regardless of any pearls of wisdom you may read elsewhere.). All that we're talking about at this point in time is IP v4.

[rohan]

Ben,
a mixed bag of results to report. Using just a network cable to connect the PC with a static address and the NAS, a new network connection was created. Once enabled, I could create a mapped network drive in Computer and drag and drop files between the PC and NAS, both ways. However, trying to use a DOS prompt (running as administrator) with net use and robocopy commands always returns an error. net use complains about a bad password when I try to create the mapped drive, and robocopy complains that it can't create the log file on the NAS. The net use command to disconnect a mapped drive completes successfully but does not do anything - the drive remains usable in Computer.

I have to use an external adapter for a cable connection with this PC, and it seems that I now have two sets of network connections - one with and one without the external adapter - the only difference seems to be the new connection. Restarting the PC with or without the external adapter brings up the appropriate set of connections, and the new one persists and works when enabled provided the external unit is plugged in.

However, although I've selected the box to remember my credentials when creating the mapped drive, this only works for the current session - I have to reselect that box and reenter the credentials at the beginning of each session. At first, I was disappointed about this, but from a security standpoint I'm beginning to think I prefer it this way ...

More worrying is the fact that I can't change the network type allocated to this connection - it always comes up as a private network and suggests that I should set up a home network, but it won't let me change it to any other type. At least it's not trying to use it as a public network. Similarly, it offers me a box to rename the network, but won't let me change the name it currently has - unidentified network. It has let me rename the connection, and though the other two connections in this set are the same as the two in the other set (at least in principle), the names of all five connections have to be unique.

To summarise my response, if I have to I can live with an incorrect network type and name, and may prefer the credentials memory the way it is, but I'm still stuck at first base without being able to use DOS commands - in effect, the same as things were when I first tried to connect a Win7 PC to the NAS. Having said that, I have made progress at your behest, in that I can now at least move files to, from and around on the NAS - thank you muchly for that.

Can we do anything to sort the DOS side ?

regards,
Ro

[TSR2]

Hi Ro,

Just on the phone so I've skimmed over your post. Are you running a batch file to map the drive etc, or manually entering the commands into the command window (DOS box)

[rohan]

batch files ...